Roberto de
Mattei
Il Tempo
August
31, 2016
During the Angelus of August 28th Pope Francis announced that he would go
to visit the earthquake victims in Lazio, Umbria and delle Marche "as soon as
possible", to bring them in person "the comfort of the faith, a fatherly and
brotherly embrace and the support of Christian hope."
That "as soon as possible" is not connected to the Pope’s agenda, which
would be to go there immediately, as much as to avoid his presence being an
obstacle to the work of the firemen, the civil defense and the police
force. As Andrea Tornielli recalls, John
Paul II’s blitz 48 hours after the quake which hit Campania and Basilicata on
November 23rd 1980, resulted in heated polemics. There were those who
said that John Paul II had obstructed the rescue work and distracted the police
force from other more urgent tasks.
Benedict XVI, in contrast, waited 22 days before visiting Aquila
devastated by the quake of April 6th 2009, and 36 days before going
to Emilia, after the earthquake of May 20th 2012.
The choice to put off the visit appears therefore opportune for various
reasons. In the first weeks immediately
after the catastrophe, the earthquake victims need material help most of
all. It is in the following months, when
their situation doesn’t make the news headlines
anymore, that they feel abandoned and need spiritual and moral support. And nobody, more than the Pope, can bring
this help which consists mainly in remembering that everything in the Christian
life has significance, even the worst catastrophes.
This is the answer that needs to be given to those, like Eugenio Scalfari,
who, in La Repubblica of August 28th pontificates about the earthquake in
Amatrice as well as all the other evils in the world, asking himself the whys -- not only of the quake that has ravaged central Italy -- but of the chaos which
is ravaging the world -- looking for the
answer in the cosmic pessimism of Leopardi+.
It is necessary also to avoid the inevitable accusations of protagonism ready to be hurled at those too fond of the
limelight, like Pope Francis, who a few days ago was busy with a film shooting in the Vatican Gardens, connected, it seems,
to the portraying of himself in a film, despite the fact that the Vatican last
February had denied Pope Francis’ intention of being an actor.
It is true however, that the tragedy of the earthquake has become part of a
tempestuous international scenario. The front pages of newspapers over the past
two weeks were practically exclusively devoted to news about the quake in Italy
and little import to some other disturbing
information, like the invitation from
the German government (to its citizens) to stock up on water and food in
anticipation of an eventual national emergency.
The faithful also expect the Pope to recall that material disasters destroy
bodies, but that there are more violent
spiritual and moral cataclysms which sweep away souls; and it is the Catholic
Church itself that is being shaken up today, internally, by an earthquake.
On the Internet a photo is circulating of a statute of Our Lady
miraculously remaining intact amid the rubble of a church in Arquata del
Tronto.
Invocations to Our Lady have multiplied among the earthquake victims and
Antonio Socci has made himself spokesman of a request to Cardinal Bagnasco on
behalf of some Italian Catholics, to renew the Consecration of Italy to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Yet, there was not even any room for Our Lady at a ‘Meeting’ stand in Rimini, and Marian devotion is
incompatible with the Muslim and Protestant ecumenical embrace.
+Leopardi, Giacomo – poet, philosopher and writer (1798 – 1837).
Translation: Contributor Francesca
Romana
